MANILA, March 21 (PNA) — Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III batted for the mandatory and compulsory implementation of the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) over the weekend by heavy power users with power generating capability to make the program effective in addressing the expected shortage in power supply until July this year.
Albano, member for the Minority Bloc of the House committee on energy, said the Department of Energy (DOE) should issue an order making the ILP mandatory and compulsory to ensure that the targeted shortfall of 745 MW of power is achieved during the critical summer months until July.
This after two houses of Congress failed to craft a common measure by mending disagreeing provisions in order to give President Benigno Aquino III emergency power to avert looming power shortage.
Both Houses refused to give in their conflicting provisions. The House wanted to give President Aquino only five months of emergency power and does not allow pass on to end consumers while the Senate version wanted pass on scheme and wanted to extend the lifeblood of emergency power up to 2016.
Albano explained that ILP as the major solution adopted by the executive and legislative branches of government to augment the thin power reserves from March to July this year may not be much effective if it’s is done on a “voluntary” basis.
“What happens if these identified heavy power users refuse to join the ILP and continue to draw heavily from the national grid? The ILP would then be rendered ineffective and inutile,” Albano, former executive director of the Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC), said.
Albano said the government must make the ILP mandatory and compulsory to make it work.
He said it should not simply depend or rely on “volunteerism” by heavy power users with power generating capacity.
“The ILP will be supported wholeheartedly by heavy power users if the DOE provides the mechanism that will assure all ILP participants that they will be properly reimbursed for the difference in costs they would incur in generating their own power in the next five months when power reserves become thin because of heavy demand in the Luzon grid,” Albano pointed out.
He added the DoE, in coordination with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), local government units and the private sector, is in the best position to identify and secure the participation of heavy power users in the ILP, especially if there is a government order that will mandate them to do so.
“In making the ILP mandatory, it behooves the DOE and its action officers assigned to the ILP program to immediately identify and list down all power generating assets in Luzon that are owned by big private companies and manufacturing plants, shopping malls, building and condominium owners and other businesses who should be compelled to join the ILP and generate their own power requirements,” Albano stressed.
With the law or policy in place, Albano said, ILP participants have no reason not to join hands with the government to participate in the ILP.
“It is not only a matter of self-preservation and continuity of their businesses that is at stake, but it is also imbued with public service as the power they will generate would allow whatever available power supply from the national grid to be supplied to consumers and public service institutions like schools, health centers, etc,” Albano concluded. (PNA)